Daniel Farke was today confirmed as the Championship's manager of the month, an award that he should be pretty pretty pleased about. He wont be dancing on any tables, but I hope he enjoyed a nice piece of cake on the sofa.

I was surprised to see as many empty seats for tonight’s match in the impressively named Stadium of Light; the crowd of 40,000 was well below the near 48,000 full house I expected. It is very close to Xmas though and people are feeling the pinch, particularly in the North, with the difficult cost of living crisis.

It is another away match for our team tonight. After Saturday’s match at Blackburn they have had Sunday and Monday as non-match days, certainly “a quick turn around”, a phrase often used by Daniel Farke.

The incessant rain made it a difficult trip to Blackburn for the Leeds United team and over 7,500 of its supporters, who braved the stormy weather to watch their heroes.

Leeds pop over the Pennines for a lunchtime meeting against Blackburn Rovers today. I assumed the match was on Sky, but not so, and it is the police that have requested an early kick-off with 7,000 Leeds fans piling into Ewood Park.

In his pre-Boro press-conference, Daniel Farke revealed that Leeds's practically clean bill of health has been ruined by Junior Firpo, though few will lose sleep over the ex-Barcelona star's latest hamstring strain. More concerning was the news that Stuart Dallas has no return date in sight.

Leeds were unchanged as expected but it was a surprise to play towards the Kop in the first half. If the opening of the match 3 days ago was the most incredible start to a game I have ever seen then this one was a close second.

It will be another cold day at  Elland Road for the visit of Middlesbrough, with  temperatures again at zero with winter starting to bite. Reflecting on the home games so far, I am not so sure it is quite “fortress Elland Road” just yet.